Australian mass murderer who pleaded guilty to murdering 35 people and injuring 23 others in the Port Arthur massacre, a shooting spree in Tasmania, Australia, in April 1996. Bryant’s rampage was the third-deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in history, the first being the 2011 Norway attacks committed by Anders Behring Breivik, followed by the 1982 massacre by Woo Bum-kon in South Korea. The Port Arthur massacre occurred six weeks after the Dunblane massacre in Scotland. Out of the carnage, Australian gun laws changed at extraordinary short notice with the ban of automatic weapons. Prime Minister John Howard’s gun buy-back scheme started on 1 October 1996 and concluded on 30 September 1997. The government bought back and destroyed nearly 1 million firearms. Since then, no shooting spree has taken place in Australia.
On 28 April 1996, at 1:30 PM, in the cafeteria after having eaten his lunch, at Port Arthur, Bryant opened fire on visitors to the tourist spot with automatic rifles taken from his tennis bag. He took three hostages and held them in a nearby guest house overnight. In the morning, between 8:30 and 8:40 AM, he ran out, clothes ablaze from a fire set in the house. He was captured; the hostages were later found dead.
He is currently serving 35 life sentences plus 1,035 years without parole in the psychiatric wing of Risdon Prison in Hobart. Bryant is described as simple-minded, perhaps with schizophrenia and certainly mentally dysfunctional. He has had life-threatening psychotic episodes and tried to commit suicide twice. Simple and seeking attention, he tries to make friends in the prison but has the emotional level of a two-year-old. His IQ is estimated at the age of 11, low to normal. He shows no remorse for the killings, perhaps because he is unable to understand the severity of his actions.
He had suffered serious injuries in a car accident on 20 October 1992. The driver of the car, his friend and housemate, Helen Harvey, was killed instantly. Bryant was named the sole beneficiary of Harvey’s will and came into possession of her assets.
Newspaper coverage immediately after the massacre raised serious questions about journalistic practices and criticism directed towards Australian media. Photographs of Martin Bryant had the eyes digitally manipulated with the effect of making Bryant appear deranged and “glaring”. Despite criticism, the manipulated photographs continued to be used in media reporting a decade later.
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